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‘We had a
‘Campfire Night‘without a spark of matchstick’ by Nnamdi

Receiving a gift from Alhaji Kachaco

With my friends in camp

On
receiving my NYSC posting letter, I headed for the ancient city of Kano. This
was not the best of times for people to want to go to the northern part of
Nigeria for the Youth Service because of the incessant crisis that did not
spare Corpers. But at this time
(2008), there was relative calm.

I was among
the earliest Corpers who arrived at
the ‘Karaye Kusala Dam’ camp. Believe
me, the heat was intense! Heat or no
heat, the mission to serve fatherland must be completed. How good it felt to
come in contact with some of my school mates from the University of Nigeria,
Nsukka.We kept one another company
throughout the registration and camp period.

For me,
camp was just like school days except for the different environment.I choose to remember our colourless ‘Campfire
Night’. The campfire which was supposed to be the key element of the event was
‘missing’.“The villagers would not
accept a campfire”, we were told.And
since every man wanted peace, we obeyed and had a quiet ‘Night vigil’ instead.

Camp over,
I embarked on the second phase of travel to Government Secondary School, Daho,
my place of primary assignment.Daho was
a remote town in Abasu local government area of Kano State; a journey that took
almost five hours from the camp. We were lucky to have two female Corpersgo with us so that they could take care of
cooking, but am sure that they would have rejected the posting to Daho if they
had a choice.

Group photogragh with the students

The corpers' Lodge

On arrival
to the all-boys school, we met with the teachers who received us well. The Corpers’ Lodge was just a place to
manage because their houses are not like ours down south. I became friends with
Mallam Hadi, my neighbour who was kind enough to give a piece of land for
planting some food crops.Water was not
a problem because our residence was just beside a dam.

Before
long, I noticed that it was the men who did all the outdoor chores; going to market
andgoing to farm.The very old women and little girls could
also be seen going about some work, but never the young girls.Theirs was an entirely different culture from
where I was coming from, so I observed and learned to live with them.

Mode of transporting farm produce

There were
no places of relaxation, but for the engaging football sessions we had with the
Policemen serving there.At other times,
I visited my fellowCorpers in Kano town or
attended my computer lessons.On days
when we collected our ‘alawi’ we
preferred to go to the bank in Dutse, the capital city of Jigawa State, since
it was closer to us than going to Kano city.

Communicating
to the boys in English Language at school was not easy, but I remember
Zaharadeen and his friend.Both boys
were very brilliant and homely. I hope they continued in that light. Generally,
the community had large families and a number of them were poor because they
engaged in subsistence farming.

I however
was shocked when after six months ofpeacefulstay in Kano, the city
was trying to experience an overflow of a crisis that originally started in
Bauchi State. The best we could do was to keep in contact through our mobile
phones. It was dangerous for Corpers to move about even as we planned
a mass movement to our colleagues who were residing inside the Army barracks.

When the
crisis continued the following day, I decided to do a ‘litmus’ test with Mallam
Hadi. I wanted to know if he could guarantee our safety with him should we be
caught in the crisis.My eyes widened
when he answered in Pidgin English Language that “Em, em, you see, me I go join
my buroda to fight o if trouble
come.”He did not pretend about rising
up against us should it get to that, for the fact that we had been
‘friends’.Thank God that the crisis
stopped and we didn’t have to look for a way of escape.But the remaining time of our service year
meant staying closer and knowing where each person was.

Alhaji Megida kachako! Nice man. He was the school’s principal. He was glad to
have the Corpers teach the children,
and on passing out of the programme he gave me a clock, a certificate and an
envelope.But the content of the
envelope is entirely my business!